Release date stock shortages for PlayStation VR

Posted Friday, September 02, 2016 - By Mike Green

It is now looking inevitable that the PlayStation VR will hit stock shortages in the United States on the release date 13th October 2016. Sony executives have even come out in public to confirm there are likely to be issues.

Two pre-order windows in March and June 2016 have resulted in all available units being sold out within minutes. Sony has subsequently confirmed there will be no more available until launch and we have found no online retailers currently taking any kind of orders.

Another factor is Christmas, obviously this is always a good period for Sony to sell their products, however a new hardware release during this period often leads to increased shortages as people are anxious to buy presents before the Christmas day deadline.

There are however some guys on eBay taking advantage of the situation with 5 sellers currently offering the virtual reality headset ranging from $950 to $2999! These sellers likely have confirmed pre-orders with established online retailers and will forward on the unit once they receive it on release date. Interestingly the $2999 seller describes themselves as having "unbeatable prices!" Our analysis has showed that these eBay listings are coming and going all the time with the average price changing week by week. Experience has shown us (as with the PS4 console) that more eBay listings are likely to appear closer to October 13th with average prices dropping from their current levels.

The situation is slightly different in Europe. In the UK, where stock shortages for video game hardware are common, most online retailers are still taking pre-orders but just not guaranteeing shipping for release day. There are no sellers on eBay UK. Amazon Germany has stopped pre-orders whilst Amazon France and Spain continue to take orders (again with no guaranteed shipping date).

On September 7th a Sony Conference should see the official announcement of the PS4 "Neo" console which is expected to be essentially a slimmer, slightly more powerful PS4 console. With this, there are likely to be new bundles of the new console and VR headset being released during October and November.

As with all these things, only time will tell how severe the stock shortages will be, however it looks like the US could be particularly hit hard.

At Stock Informer we will be regularly monitoring the situation with regular updates. After release we will be constantly checking online stores for stock ensuring you will be the first to know when an opportunity arises to buy a PlayStation VR headset.